My Students' Melodies - piano accompaniment. In the fall of 2007, Jane Soyka published the first edition of My Students' Melodies, and presented students performing their pieces in recital. The project has now become an ongoing annual tradition. This book includes the results of several years of working students, making up melodies for the purpose of developing tonal memory, honing their violin skills and introducing the fundamentals of music theory. Each of the seven volumes included represents a focus on one aspect of musical form, technique or theory concept. This book contains the piano arrangements of all the past years of writing and arranging. The pieces serve as great supplemental music for the beginning student who might want to learn pieces outside the traditional repertoire at his or her level. They also might be used as sight-reading material for the beginning reader.
About the Author: Jane Soyka has been teaching strings in Albuquerque since 1985. She received her Bachelor of Music Education Degree "with distinction" from the University of New Mexico and studied violin there with Leonard Felberg. She has received extensive Suzuki training from Teacher-Trainers Susan Kempter, Lorraine Fink, Ted Brunson, Alice Joy Lewis, Louise Scott and Marilyn O'Boyle.A long-standing member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, she specializes in teaching young children utilizing the Suzuki Method(R), having registered extensive long-term and unit training with the S.A.A. in the Suzuki violin volumes, supplemental literature and enrichment courses. Jane was co-director for the New Mexico Suzuki Institute and Advanced String Camp, an S.A.A. sanctioned summer retreat for string students studying via the Suzuki Method(R). Additionally, over the years she has directed the New Mexico Suzuki Workshop and the Rio Grande Suzuki Workshop, both of which were open venues for Albuquerque-area Suzuki students and their teachers to come together for weekly group lessons, performances and play-ins. Jane's expertise in composing and arranging music with young violin students has brought her to Brisbane, Australia as well as Auckland, New Zealand as a clinician in Suzuki programs there. Since 2007, she has been working with her students on the ongoing project, "My Students' Melodies," recordings of which are available for download through iTunes, CD Baby, Soundcloud and her own website, www.soykastudios.com. In 2009, S.A.A.'s flagship publication, the American Suzuki Journal published an article written by Jane entitled, My Students' Melodies: Inspiring My Students Through Composition." Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jane maintains a full-time private studio. Those who study with her receive weekly private instruction, group ensemble classes, and many opportunities for recital participation and group public performances. In addition, each year students have the opportunity to create and perform their original compositions. In her spare time and in addition to her private violin-teaching career, Jane enjoys composing and arranging, music publishing and photography.